


In the Homestretch of the Hard Times

by FallingLikeThis



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Because that's what this is, Blood samples, Captive Louis, Immune Louis Tomlinson, Lonely Harry, M/M, Moral Harry, Needles, No Smut, Rated for subject matter, Scientist Harry Styles, Soldiers, Survivors Compound, Virus, What's the opposite of slowburn?, but just for taking blood samples, defiant Louis, light Violence, no zombies are actually shown in on-screen, quickburn?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:30:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25110145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallingLikeThis/pseuds/FallingLikeThis
Summary: Harry is a scientist trying to cure a virus that turns people into mindless zombies. Louis is a thief caught stealing food for his family. But, when the soldiers who caught him see all the bite marks on his arms, their Captain decides that maybe Louis should stick around for a while whether he wants to or not. Harry is very opposed to that plan.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 22
Kudos: 86
Collections: Prompt 1.4: Extract





	In the Homestretch of the Hard Times

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a Wordplay prompt challenge for the prompt "extract". To read the amazing fics that were written by the others on this prompt, [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/extract), and to see all fics written as part of the challenge (including years 1-3), [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wordplay_fic_challenge/works). You can also find the masterpost for this year’s challenge [here](https://wordplayfics.tumblr.com/post/622306139518926848/wordplay-2020-every-week-for-five-weeks-a-prompt).
> 
> Thank you to Michelle and Lynda for reading over this for me!
> 
> Title is from "The Bones" by Maren Morris.

“Shit,” Harry mutters as he stares through the lens of his microscope at the virus running rampant in the blood sample in his petri dish. “Fuck.” 

He disposes of the dish, dropping it and his gloves into the chute that will send them straight to the incinerator, and goes to wash his hands. He scrubs his skin, taking out his frustration on his poor hands but not enough to do any damage. He can’t work with open sores, not if he wants to survive long enough to cure this disease. 

Once his hands are clean, he moves to sit at his computer where he records yet another failure for posterity’s sake. 

**Attempt 149: Subject 24’s blood doesn’t carry the antibodies to cure the Z-virus as originally thought. Z-virus antigens were already present in the subject’s bloodstream. Subject 24 is not immune to the virus, but a carrier.**

Harry sighs, looking over at Louanne sitting innocuously in her cage, smiling and waving toward the banana that Harry promised her if she’d just be a good girl and let him work for a little while. He stands and moves to the banana, signing to her as he holds it. ‘What do you say?’

The chimpanzee rubs a circle on her chest in a sign of ‘please’, hooting at him as she does so. Probably scolding him for being patronizing. 

“Okay, you held up your end of the deal. Thank you,” he says, giving her the banana through the bars but not lingering like he usually does. She’s too dangerous to play with until he can figure out this cure and he already misses her a little despite the fact that she’s right in front of him.

“Ptttthhhhh,” she blows a raspberry at him, following it up with a big all-teeth smile. Maybe he can’t play with her physically right now, but she’s still content to tease him. It’s enough to make Harry crack a smile, filling with affection for her. He takes her back to her room where she’s been quarantined ever since Chester got out of his rat cage and bit her last week. He knows it makes her sad, being closed up all alone but Chester bit her brother Casper too and he wasn’t as lucky as Louanne. Harry really hopes he can cure her. And maybe save the world while he’s at it. That would be super. 

Harry is busy at work, trying to figure out his next move when there’s a ruckus in the hallway outside his lab. He moves to the door and opens it, peeking his head out to see what’s going on. 

There are four soldiers wrangling one man who is putting up a mighty fight at trying to get away from them. 

“What is going on here?” Harry asks, drawing everyone’s attention to him as he steps out into the hallway and crosses his arms over his chest. “We don’t treat people like this.”

“He’s not one of ours,” one of the soldiers explains as the man they’re all holding onto yanks his arms from their grip, trying to break their hold on him. “We found him looting our food stores.”

“Is that true?” Harry asks, turning his gaze on the man. 

“Yeah,” the struggling man admits, baring his teeth at Harry, a fiery hatred burning in his eyes. “It’s true.”

“You could join us here, you know. You don’t have to steal things. We’re a safe haven for survivors,” Harry explains, wondering why anyone would steal food and run when they’re already behind the safety of the compound walls. 

“And be treated like this daily?” the man scoffs, still trying to break free from his captors. “I don’t think so.”

“We don’t treat people like this usually,” Harry says, looking to the soldiers for answers. “What is actually happening here? If he’s just hungry, why not give him food and let him go?”

“We thought you might need him, Doctor,” another soldier addresses Harry. “Look at his arms.”

Harry would look at the man’s arms but they’re moving too much as he twists and turns, his struggles growing more frantic at the soldier’s words. 

“Please stop,” Harry pleads, worried the man will hurt himself or someone else. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,  _ Doctor _ ,” the man snarls at him. “Let me go!”

“Fine,” Harry sighs, backing up a step and raising his hands in surrender so that the man knows Harry won’t touch him. “Let him go.”

“Wait, really?” The man asks, his struggles ceasing in a moment of surprise. 

Suddenly, Harry can clearly see the crescent shaped scars on his arms, paler than the rest of his skin, and Harry knows that he’s probably just made a huge mistake. This man may be the person he’s been looking for. He may be immune to the virus, carrying the antibodies Harry needs to make a cure. But Harry won’t imprison someone against their will either.

“Really,” Harry replies truthfully. “If you don’t want to be here, I’m not going to force you to stay. Can I ask a favor though?”

“What kind of favor?” the man asks warily, finally tugging his arms free from the hold of the soldiers surrounding him now that Harry has given them the command to let him go. 

“I see you’ve been bitten. Quite a few times, if I’m not mistaken.” Harry points out the scars on his arms. “May I take a blood sample? You can leave right after, I promise.”

The man rubs at his arms as though he’s trying to wipe his scars away, or maybe just cover them from Harry’s probing eyes. “Not really a fan of needles,” he mutters, giving Harry a hard stare, perhaps wondering if he can trust him. 

“Neither am I when I’m on the other end of them,” Harry laughs lightly. “I’m hoping that you’ll still help me out though?”

The man looks around at the soldiers still surrounding him and then looks thoughtfully back at Harry. “Can I still have the food? I have siblings to look after.”

“Of course,” Harry promises sincerely, seeing the man in an entirely new light. “I’ll get it for you myself if need be.”

“Okay,” the man consents. “Take your blood, but then I need to get back to them.”

“I understand. I’ll try to be quick.” Harry sweeps his arm toward his lab, showing the man the way. “After you.”

With one last, wary look around him, the man steps forward, walking toward the room Harry directs him to. 

“Please, have a seat,” Harry pulls out a chair for him and moves to put on new gloves and get his supplies. He notices the soldiers still standing outside his door, one of them speaking quietly into a walkie talkie, and his gut fills with apprehension. He tries to ignore it, hoping that whatever is being said has nothing to do with him or the stranger keeping a watchful eye on him as Harry seeks out the  median cubital vein in his upper arm. 

“My name is Harry, by the way,” Harry tells the stranger as he opens an alcohol swab to wipe his arm down with before pricking him with a needle. 

“Hmm,” the man hums noncommittally. “Good to know.”

“I was hoping you would tell me yours.” Harry doesn’t look at his face, instead watching carefully as a vial fills with the man’s blood. He hopes that by not putting all his attention on him, the man will know that he has a kernel of Harry’s trust. Maybe then, he’ll give Harry a little trust as well. 

“Why? I won’t be here long enough for you to need it.”

“Fair enough,” Harry sighs, getting the full vial of blood labeled ( _ bitten food thief _ ) and put away before moving back to the stranger to bandage the wound he’s left behind. “How much food do you think you need?”

“You’re really just going to hand me a bunch of food and let me go? What if I come back to steal more?” The man arches a brow at Harry. 

“Why would you need to steal it if you know we’ll give it to you?” Harry counters, removing his gloves and washing his hands again. 

“Fair enough,” the man repeats Harry’s earlier reply with a smirk. “I have five siblings, if that gives you an idea of how much I need.”

“Okay, serious question.” Harry sits on a rolling stool and scoots it over in front of the other man. “If you have that many siblings, why not bring them here? We have walls to protect us and plenty of food to keep us going. It’s got to be safer than wherever you’re hiding out there.”

“You only think you’re safer in here. Places like this, they make you feel safe, like you’ll always be protected from the dangers outside your precious walls, but the real danger is already in here with you. One wrong move, one moment where you fail to prove your worth and your guardians will send your brick fortress tumbling down on top of you,” the man answers nodding toward the soldiers outside the door, a haunted look in his eye. 

“Perhaps,” Harry considers. “I haven’t seen it happen here, but I can’t say for sure that it wouldn’t.” He reaches out to lightly touch the bandage on the man’s arm. “Maybe we face that risk for the greater good. Because with one  _ right _ move, we can save the world.”

“Louis,” the man says with a shiver, covering the small bandage with his hand and making Harry realize that he should probably not be touching him without permission.

“Louis?” Harry asks, taking his hand back, confused and feeling like he should be apologizing. 

“It’s my name.”

“Oh.” Harry murmurs, giving Louis a shy smile. “Thanks for telling me.”

Louis shrugs, seeming a bit shy himself after everything they’ve gone through the past few minutes. “You seem pretty alright. For a doctor.”

Harry grins, tucking his hair behind his ear as he stands and opening his mouth to tell Louis he’ll be right back with some food for him. Before he gets to say anything though, a soldier comes stomping through Harry’s door. 

“The Captain wants to speak with you,” he says, though Harry isn’t sure if they’re addressing him or Louis. 

“Me or our guest?”

The soldier looks from Louis to Harry and back again with an assessing gaze. “Both.”

“This isn’t gonna go well,” Louis mutters quietly as two soldiers come in the room and take hold of his arms again. 

There’s a churning in Harry’s stomach that makes him think he might be in agreement with Louis’ words. 

The walk to the Captain’s quarters is long and awkward. The only sounds the shuffling of boots on the linoleum floor and the occasional grunt from Louis trying to wrest his arms from the soldiers accompanying them again. 

“Can you just let him walk with his arms free?” Harry finally asks in frustration. “You’re still the ones with the weapons. I doubt he’ll run, especially in an enclosed hallway where he has nowhere to go.”

“We were given orders.” 

“ _ Fuck _ your orders,” Louis spits at them, only to have his arms twisted against his back.

“Hey!” Harry stops walking, standing face to face with the soldier leading them to their Captain once he turns to see what Harry is on about. “Unless your orders were to break his arms, then I suggest you have your men loosen their hold on him.”

“We were told not to let him escape,” the soldier snaps back at him. “They’ll do what they have to, Doctor.”

“Do you have handcuffs?”

“We’re not police officers--”

“Zip ties, then?” Harry cuts in impatiently. 

“Yes.”

“Then use them to cuff him to me. You know I’m not going anywhere and that way he can walk without risk of a broken arm. Everyone wins.”

The soldier sighs, glaring at Harry, but he must see the determination in Harry’s eyes because he turns to one of the others. “Do it.”

Louis doesn’t fight as they put the zip tie on him, watching quietly as Harry holds out his arm while they attach their wrists. 

“Thanks,” he whispers once they’re moving again, rubbing at the plastic cuff with his free hand. 

“Of course,” Harry answers back just as quietly. “I’m sorry. For whatever happens next.”

Louis is quiet again as they walk, not responding aloud to Harry’s words but a second later Harry feels a quick nudge to the back of his hand and he thinks maybe it’s a signal of understanding. 

“Well, well,” Captain Wilson says as his soldiers nudge Harry and Louis into the room in front of them. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

Harry has always thought maybe there was something a little off about the Captain. He’s played nice, like he just wanted to take care of the people in the compound, but now Harry thinks he’s seeing the side that was always hiding just beneath the surface. 

“Is he immune, Doctor?” Captain Wilson asks Harry. 

“I don’t know. I took a blood sample but I haven’t had the time to test it.”

“Well, either he’s immune or he’s a carrier given all those bite marks. He’ll be useful to us either way. I’ve ordered my men to keep him comfortable until we can determine just how useful he’ll be.”

“I promised to get him food and let him go,” Harry argues, though he already has a feeling how this is going to go.

“Did you?” The Captain asks, amusement burning bright in his eyes. “Look, I’m sorry but you didn’t have the authority to do that, so that promise ain’t worth the air you expelled to make it, Doc. Don’t you worry though, our newest guest will have plenty of food and water. Whatever you need to keep him functional while you run your little experiments on him.” The Captain turns away from them, a clear dismissal, but Harry isn’t quite ready to accept Louis’ fate yet. He deserves better and so does the family waiting for him to come back to them. 

“He has-- ouch!” Harry turns to Louis, ready to question why he stomped on his foot like that but finds Louis staring back with wide, frightened eyes and giving a minute shake of his head. 

“He has what?” The Captain twists around, studying them both like he’s a shark that’s just gotten a taste of blood in the water. 

“He has... a bad attitude,” Harry says, thinking quickly to cover his almost slip. If they know about Louis’ siblings, they might want them for testing too. Only Louis’ fear made Harry realize it. “He’s going to fight me on every test.”

“Then knock him out first.” Captain Wilson moves to stand directly in front of Louis, staring him down with narrowed eyes. “I was going to give you a cushy room. But if you want to act like an animal, we’ll treat you like one.”

“What does that mean?” Harry asks, his heart sinking in his chest.

“Put him in a cage,” the Captain answers, waving them away and the soldiers surround them to lead them back to the lab. 

Back in the lab, Harry unlocks his biggest cage. It takes up the back half of the room and he remembers the good old days when he used to use it as Louanne and Casper’s playroom. He spent hours at a time in there himself, teaching the two of them to sign so that they could communicate with him better. Now, it’s a sad reminder of the state of things and that Casper isn’t with them anymore. It’s big enough that Louis shouldn’t be too uncomfortable until Harry can come up with a plan to get him out of here. 

It’s only once the cage is open that a soldier cuts Harry free from Louis, pushing their captive into the cage forcefully and slamming the door behind him. 

Harry watches until the last soldier leaves the room and then turns and rests his head on the bars, gripping them tightly in his hands. “Louis, I’m so sorry.”

Louis walks over to the wall and slides down it to sit on the floor, resting his head in his hands. “You did what you could, Doc.”

“No, I didn’t,” Harry scoffs, mad at himself for all the things he  _ didn’t _ do. “ I could have demanded he let you go. I could have--”

“You could have gotten yourself caged as well,” Louis cuts him off. “As it is, I’m choosing to look at the situation like I have a friend on the outside. Which is infinitely more helpful than having you in here with me, so I think you did brilliantly.”

“They’ll have someone watching the door from now on, I’m sure of it. I don’t know how much help I’ll really be,” Harry worries. This isn’t right. They don’t lock people up against their will. Except, apparently they do and Harry was just too blind to see it. 

“Hey,” Louis says to get his attention, standing and walking over to the bars. He wraps his hands gently around Harry’s. “You did a lot more than most people would’ve done in your shoes, Harry, and for that I thank you. But you’re right about them watching us, especially right now, so for the moment we should just play along. Do what you’d normally do, worry about your saving the world stuff. That’s still important.”

“But what about your siblings? Aren’t they waiting?”

“Yeah, but they’ll be fine for a few hours. My sister Charlotte is old enough to take care of the rest for now,” Louis’ words sound calm but his eyes belie his concern for his family.

“I  _ will _ get you back to them,” Harry breathes, meeting Louis’ eyes and noticing for the first time how blue they are. “I promise.”

“I believe you,” Louis tells him, giving his hands a light squeeze before letting go. “Let me know if you need anything else from me. Otherwise, I’ll be over here,” he says, walking back to his spot against the wall and sitting down, “figuring out our next move.”

Harry throws himself into his tests. Louis does appear to be immune to the Z-virus and Harry gets to work right away extracting the antibodies from his blood to attempt a cure. He uses samples of Louanne’s blood to test it against and while he thinks he’s making  _ some _ progress, he’s not sure how close he is to an actual cure that won’t kill the host entirely. 

“You coming to supper, Doctor?” The Captain pokes his head into the lab after a few hours. 

“No, I’m too close,” Harry answers, not taking his eyes from his microscope. “Could you have something sent up?”

“Sure,” the Captain agrees amicably. It’s not the first time Harry has been too deep in his experiments to take a break. “I’ll have something sent up for sleeping beauty over there too.”

Harry looks where Captain Wilson is pointing to see Louis laid out in his cage with his head bent at what must be an uncomfortable angle, snoring away. “Yeah. Thanks,” Harry tells him, turning back just in time to see the door close behind him.

“Is the world saved yet?” Louis asks as soon as the door clicks shut.

“Thought you were sleeping,” Harry gives him the side-eye, and then goes back to peering at his blood samples.

“That’s what I wanted you to think. Don’t know how you expect anyone to sleep with all the muttering you do while you work though.”

“What? I do not mutter,” Harry mutters grumpily. 

“Oh, yeah?” Louis grins, sitting up straight in his spot against the wall. “Who’s Louanne then? She your girlfriend?”

“Wha-- No!” Harry cries. “Why on earth would you think that?”

“I dunno,” Louis shrugs, looking down to play with the hem of his shirt. “You kept saying something about saving her. Figured she was someone important to you.”

“She is important to me,” Harry concedes that point, but the rest he definitely needs to clear up. “But she’s not my girlfriend for two very important reasons. First of all, girls aren’t really my type, if you get my meaning, and second, Louanne is a chimpanzee.”

“Oh,” Louis snorts. “Sorry.”

“She is important though,” Harry repeats. “She’s a carrier of the Z-virus. If I can use your blood to cure hers, then I can save everyone.” Harry should probably stop talking there, but it feels like a disservice to Louanne to make her sound like nothing more than an experiment. “Also, she’s my friend. The only one I really have here. So she’s important that way too.”

“Hmm,” Lous hums, looking away from him.

“What? Did I say something wrong?” Harry asks, unsure what he’s done to make Louis close himself off. 

“No, it’s just…”

Before he can finish his thought, two soldiers barge in with trays of food for them. 

“Thank you,” Harry says, gesturing for them to put the trays down on a table across the room from his experiments while he takes off his gloves and tosses them down the chute to the incinerator. He washes his hands while they leave and then moves to get his keys to unlock Louis’ cage. 

“What are you doing?” Louis asks, watching from his spot on the floor as Harry opens the door. 

“Letting you out?” Harry says in an inquiring tone. He thought it was obvious. “I’m not going to make you stay in there all the time. And I’m certainly not going to make you eat in there. The chimps play in there. Well, they used to.”

“Harry, you can’t just be letting me walk around. What if the Captain walks in?”

“What if he does?” Harry breathes out in frustration, throwing his hands in the air. “Won’t he be happy to know that you aren’t running?”

“Perhaps, but he’ll also know that you’re not wriggling under his all-powerful thumb,” Louis argues, not daring to leave the cell and instead watching as Harry walks over to retrieve their trays. “He can’t know that you’re working against him until we’re already gone.”

Harry freezes halfway to the cell with Louis’ food. “ _ We? _ ”

“What?” Louis asks as though he has no idea what he just said. 

Harry definitely does though because that one little word is still resonating deep within him. He hasn’t been a ‘we’ in a very long time. “You said, ‘until  _ we’re _ already gone.’”

“Oh. Right,” Louis looks away again, brushing his shaggy hair out of his eyes. “I just meant… I didn’t mean--”

“No, of course not,” Harry cuts in, trying to ignore the way his heart sinks. He hands Louis his tray and closes the cage again, moving back to the corner across the room to eat his food alone. It’s not a big deal, really. He’s used to it.

They eat in silence for a few minutes and Harry can feel it hollowing out his bones, the quiet and the loneliness. He’d been getting used to the feeling before Louis had waltzed into his compound and blown the doors off the hinges. Figuratively speaking. It doesn’t seem real that that was only hours ago.

“I was going to ask if you wanted to go with me,” Louis says quietly from his cage where he’s picking at his food. “When I leave. But then I didn’t know if you’d want to because it might mean leaving Louanne behind, so I didn’t know if I should ask. I was hoping you’d want to.”

Harry turns to face Louis, his food forgotten. “You were?”

Louis looks up from his tray of barely touched food, smile soft where his gaze is intense. “You’re the best person I’ve met in a really long time. Those are the kind of people you hold on to.”

Harry’s eyes prick with the urge to tear up. He really wants to say yes. To go with Louis and disappear forever with his half-dozen siblings and one hopefully cured chimp. He’s never wanted anything more. 

“Stay quiet,” he warns Louis, moving to the door and opening it to peek outside. 

There’s a soldier standing guard and he looks at Harry when he hears the door click open. 

“Hey,” Harry says with an apologetic smile when the soldier looks at him. “I’m gonna need to go get another blood sample from Louanne. Would you mind stepping inside to keep an eye on our guest while I’m gone?”

“Sure,” the soldier says with a shrug, moving to step past Harry into the room. 

“Oh shit,” Harry cries, pretending to stumble and pushing the soldier into the door while also pulling it shut, the force of the door hitting his head knocking him out cold. Harry stares down at him. “Well, you lot do like to make fun of me for being clumsy. Guess you were right.”

“Harry? What the fuck is going on?” Louis hisses from inside the room. 

“What part of ‘stay quiet’ don’t you understand?” Harry asks, pulling the soldier’s unconscious form into the room and taking his weapon in the event he should wake up. 

“What are you doing?” Louis panics when he sees the soldier and comes to the correct conclusion that Harry seems to have put a plan into motion without any actual planning. 

“I’m getting you out of here,” Harry answers, grabbing his keys and opening the cage again. Next, he moves to a drawer and pulls out a canvas bag, tossing the apple from his supper and his unopened fruit cup into it. “Grab whatever’s left of your supper and put it in this,” he hands the bag to Louis who grabs it and moves swiftly to follow Harry’s directions. Harry moves to his drawers to grab some blood vials and needles. “I’m sorry I can’t get you more now, but there's a phone booth on the far side of the compound. It’s useless, so no one ever goes there. I’ll try to put as much as I can in there every Monday. Don’t come further onto the compound. Just to the phone booth. Got it?” 

Louis comes out of the cage, food tucked safely in his bag, and twists Harry around by the shoulder. “Wait, you aren’t coming with me?”

Harry swallows hard and does his best to blink back the emotions trying to seep from his eyes. “I want to. But I can’t. Not yet.”

“Not yet?” There’s hope in Louis’ eyes when he asks and that hope is enough to carry Harry forward with this plan. 

Harry looks down at his hands and all the things he holds in them and then looks back up at Louis. “I need more of your blood. They’re less likely to chase you down if I have enough to work with.”

“What about you though?” Louis asks, sitting on the stool Harry pushes over to him and giving Harry his arm. “What’s to stop them from locking you up once I’m gone?”

“They can’t lock me up if they want me to work on this cure. But if they try, I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Harry tells him with a sly grin as he wipes his arm with an alcohol swab. 

“I don’t want to leave without you.” Louis confesses, looking up at Harry like he’s all he’s ever wanted, even as Harry takes his blood. “Is that weird to say? After only knowing each other for a few hours?”

“I don’t think so,” Harry tells him. “I don’t want you to have to. But there are things I still need to do here.” 

Louis catches one of Harry’s hands, holding it in his own. “Do them fast.”

“I’ll do my best,” Harry promises, finishing up and carefully putting away the vials. 

“How will you--? I don’t know how to get to you--” Louis can’t seem to find the words he wants to say so Harry places his hands on his shoulders.

“I know you can’t tell me where you’re staying,” he says calmly, knowing that the Captain could use Harry to try and get that information if he really wanted to go after Louis, “but one day, when you come to the phone booth, I’ll be there waiting for you.”

“Promise?” 

“I promise.”

The air between them stills as they stare into each other’s eyes for a moment, cementing Harry’s promise in their memories. And then Louis lifts a hand to Harry’s cheek, thumb caressing his jawline before he dives in to press their lips together. 

Harry’s hands bury themselves in Louis’ hair and pull him ever closer, their kiss growing in both depth and desperation as they say what Harry has promised won’t be their last goodbye. It’s just the first. Maybe the only. Never the last. 

“You have to go,” Harry insists, tearing himself away because he knows they have precious little time. “Go that way,” he says, pushing Louis to the right out the door. “Take a left at the end of the hallway and go in the first door to the right. There’s a hidden room that will lead you outside the compound. Pull on  The Wind in the Willows to open it. It’s the greenest book on the shelf.”

“Okay,” Louis agrees, moving closer instead of away. “One more for the road,” he states, kissing Harry one more time before backing away towards the hidden room. “Mondays, phone booth, far side of the compound,” he repeats, committing the instructions to memory before giving Harry a nod and turning to run the rest of the way. 

“I’ll see you soon,” Harry whispers at his back, watching until he disappears around the corner. Then, he runs in search of the first soldier he can find to report Louis missing and lead them in the wrong direction. 

~Eleven Mondays later~

Louis walks slowly to the edge of the compound with little hope of this Monday being any different than all the ones before it. After Harry had helped him escape, he’d spent every return visit excited, certain that Harry would be there waiting for him as promised. But every Monday, all he’d found was the bag of food Harry had offered to leave him. 

He knows it’s stupid to rest his hopes on a man he’d barely met and had so little time to actually get to know, but Harry had been a big, bright star in a world covered in darkness. Louis misses his light and warmth. 

He’s nearly to the phone booth, staring at his feet as he walks dejectedly to get the food for his family when a strange noise lifts his gaze.

“Louanne!” Harry whispers, signing to her as he speaks. “What did I tell you about being quiet?”

Louanne signs something back and Harry smiles at her. 

“That’s right. Quiet until we’re far away.”

“Harry?” Louis doesn’t quite believe his eyes. 

“Louis,” Harry breathes out, smiling wide at the sight of him. “I, uh, brought a friend. I hope you don’t mind.” His eyes widen and he adds, “she’s cured!” as though Louis would believe he’d be here with her otherwise. 

“Hi. Louanne, I assume?” Louis greets Louanne with a smile, bending to offer his hand to her. “I’m Louis.”

She shakes his hand, moving her other hand over her face as she looks at Harry.

“Yes,” Harry laughs. “ He is very pretty, isn’t he?”

“Harry,” Louis sighs, throwing himself into the other man’s arms. “I can’t believe you’re finally here.”

“I promised, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did.” Louis can’t exactly argue. Harry has a perfect record for promises kept so far. “We should get out of here.”

“I’m right behind you,” Harry tells him with a grin, gesturing for Louis to lead the way. 

Louis has a better idea. He takes Harry’s hand, raising it to his lips to press a kiss against his skin. “I like you better by my side.”

“Then by your side is where I’ll be.”

“Promise?”

Harry laughs. “I promise.”

He keeps that one too. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Here is the [fic post](https://fallinglikethis.tumblr.com/post/622907960453201920/in-the-homestretch-of-the-hard-times) if you'd like to share.


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